Samsung DeX review: Not the PC replacement you are looking for - SamMobile

The first time I came beyond a phone that could turn into a PC was the Ubuntu phone from Approved back at MWC 2012. The Ubuntu phone could run a full-featured version of Ubuntu's desktop OS with the popular Unity user interface, one that millions of folks were using effectually the world. Canonical's plans didn't work out, only back then, I thought it was most magical that you could run a desktop environment using your telephone. The magic didn't last long, though, equally everything felt sluggish thank you to the not-and then-powerful mobile processors at the fourth dimension.

Microsoft is doing something similar too with their Continuum feature, which can drive a light version of Windows 10 when a Windows Phone device is connected through a special dock. I've never used Continuum so I tin can't annotate on how it works, but Windows Phone's failure to make a paring in the smartphone market place means Continuum has little risk of becoming something tangible.

Well, Samsung is now the latest corporation to attempt something like this, and that's what the visitor'south new DeX station is all about. With DeX, you can dock the Milky way S8 or S8+ to get a desktop-like Android experience on a monitor, with back up for peripherals like a mouse, keyboard, and an Ethernet cable. Only is that experience good plenty for united states of america to call DeX the futurity of computing?

Allow'due south dive into the review and find out.

Blueprint

The DeX station looks somewhat like a blackness saucer, with a superlative that you can slide open with an easy and gentle push, which reveals a USB Type-C port that is used to dock the Milky way S8 or S8+. Unfortunately, only the Milky way S8 and S8+ are supported at this time, and it'due south probable Samsung doesn't recollect other Milky way devices are capable enough. There's a fan for keeping the device cool at the back, and you become two standard USB ports, an HDMI port, and an Ethernet port for connectivity. The USB ports support anything that Android supports, so you lot can adhere a USB hub to one of the ports to connect more than than 2 devices to DeX.

At that place'south also a USB Type-C port for powering DeX, although a slight consequence here is that Samsung doesn't packet a cable or charger with DeX. DeX as well refused to fire up when continued to a tertiary-party fast charger, so y'all will need to keep Samsung's official charger handy if you intend to use DeX. It's as well worth mentioning that you cannot employ the phone while it is docked and beingness used as a desktop computer. Information technology would have been nice to be able to use both the phone's display and the monitor, but information technology'south not a major problem in the grand scheme of things.

DeX as a Desktop

You lot will feel right at home when you kicking up DeX for the first time, equally the setup is extremely similar to a regular desktop. Y'all get a taskbar at the bottom and a few icons on the desktop, along with app drawer, multitasking, and home keys. You are greeted with an "Apps for DeX" banner when y'all open up the app drawer for the start time, and the banner suggests that yous get to the Galaxy Apps shop to go supported apps. There were about 30 uniform apps for DeX when I was using it for this review. That's certainly not a depression number, only what's non impressive is that some of these apps aren't really all that useful (such as Craiglist+).

How is it to use? Well, anyone who has ever connected a mouse and keyboard to an Android phone or tablet will realize that it is, for the most role, Android on a large screen. Samsung has tried to plough the basic interface into one that works similar a desktop, merely when you get down to using the thing, most apps will work simply similar their mobile analogue. That's smashing on its ain, as Android works peachy with a mouse and keyboard, merely there are a lot of trivial nuisances that mar the experience.

Take, for example, the simple act of sending messages by hit the Enter key within apps. This works differently on different apps. In WhatsApp, the Enter primal works to add a new line. In Slack (which nosotros use for work here at SamMobile), it sends messages. Since most apps work in their mobile format with a desktop-like interface, yous will detect yourself trying to do things as you would on a desktop earlier realizing it won't work. For case, I decided to run YouTube in Chrome equally I practise on my desktop, and it opened in YouTube's mobile version, reminding me that I should open the YouTube app instead. Chrome tends to open the mobile folio for most websites, so you accept to manually switch to desktop view for each site. Samsung's browser loads desktop versions of sites by default, but since Chrome is where all my browsing happened, it soon became a trouble.

Typing in apps is besides a somewhat long-winded process. In Slack, every fourth dimension I would change to a unlike aqueduct, I would have to use the mouse to enable the typing field, as the cursor will not be active by default each time you lot go to a new channel. On the PC, this is never an issue, equally you can start typing as shortly as you lot switch to a different channel. In Chrome, hitting Ctrl+H opens the History tab as on a desktop, merely you accept to manually hit the search button to search for a particular site, an additional step that isn't required on a desktop. Basically, you will be using the mouse a lot more is required on a true desktop, so yous will find yourself being unable to be as quick at getting around.

At that place'due south likewise the fact that some apps run in mobile fashion at all times, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Some apps tin be resized to run in tablet mode, but this tin can crusade scaling issues, as yous will see with Facebook Messenger as shown in the flick below. Snapchat as well acted upward by non showing me the letters within chats, which defeated the whole purpose. Oh, and ane rather serious annoyance is that every time you striking the Shift and Space keys in quick succession, DeX changes keyboard language. This is an Android annoyance that crops up even when using DeX, and it seriously affected my workflow during bouts of fast typing.

But once you expect past the idiosyncrasies, you tin certainly get a lot of work done with DeX, as you do get to employ regular apps on a big screen. I was able to write articles on WordPress here on SamMobile (fifty-fifty though WordPress also works in mobile format, so a few buttons that yous expect to see right next to the text field need to exist accessed by scrolling instead), do a video phone call over Skype (although this requires positioning DeX in forepart of yous, equally the phone's photographic camera is used), and edit documents in Word simply every bit I would on a desktop. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft's apps piece of work great on DeX, no incertitude considering of the company'due south partnership with Samsung that sees the erstwhile's apps preloaded on the latter's devices.

Gmail also worked fine; it loaded upward in the tablet format, so emails open on half of the screen while the listing of emails shows consistently on the other half. Yous can fifty-fifty switch between different accounts by hitting their thumbnails in the lesser left corner of the screen. It also helps that quite a few Windows shortcuts are supported. This is more a feature of Android itself with a keyboard than DeX, only you can switch between apps by pressing Alt + Tab or lock the phone by hit the Windows + L keys. Last just not the least, Samsung has built in a few shortcuts for launching apps. Want the email app? Press Windows + East and the email app will come correct upward.

Your telephone's notifications are shown on DeX, and you can reply to them where necessary. I besides liked that things that you would usually need to go into the status bar to enable or disable are shown right on the desktop. Want to disable mobile data? Click on the LTE icon on the homescreen. The aforementioned goes for things similar Wi-Fi. Speaking of data, if yous accept a LAN cable connected to the dock, you can disable both Wi-Fi and mobile data, which will make DeX employ the LAN connection for connectivity.

For those wondering, games don't run in the DeX surroundings and trying to run them will simply give you a notification that the game is designed to run on a phone's touch screen. This isn't going to be a problem for virtually as they wouldn't be connecting to DeX for gaming, but I wonder why games like Temple Run, which only demand a tap (which tin can be replicated with the mouse) to be played, can't be allowed to run in DeX. Oh, and there'due south likewise no headphone jack on DeX, and then sound is either routed through the telephone or the HDMI connection and via your monitor if it has speakers. This is a serious oversight on Samsung'due south function; I know DeX is supposed to exist for piece of work rather than play, but it means you lot tin can't truly enjoy it as a desktop device unless y'all have Bluetooth speakers connected to the phone.

Performance

Since DeX is powered by the Exynos 8895 or Snapdragon 835 inside the Galaxy S8, you lot will find some latency when hovering effectually the screen with the mouse (it reminded me of the early days of netbooks, just with a tad more ability). Overall, though, performance on DeX is commendable, and you can get around apps without too many hints of slowdowns. There were a few times when things would slow down to a crawl, but it was only when I was multitasking heavily.

DeX also tends to keep an impressive number of apps running at any given moment. I tried running ten different apps at the same time and switched between them randomly, and DeX didn't reload any of them. Chrome'due south tabs also remained open up for a considerable time. Overall, functioning on DeX is sufficient enough to get basic work done and multitask betwixt a slew of unlike apps.

Security

With DeX, security is something that many will ask almost, since in that location would be many instances when you would go out your telephone docked and be away from your desk. Well, security on DeX is tied directly to the security on the Galaxy S8/S8+. A press of the power button on the phone locks the DeX surround, and you can then unlock information technology using whatsoever security method that might be enabled. This includes iris and facial recognition, although folks that aren't likewise tall might need to lean up to get their face or optics in line with the phone's camera, as the phone sits at nearly a 45-caste angle on the DeX dock. Of course, the fingerprint sensor isn't the all-time affair to employ with DeX, but once again, you can utilise whatever security method is offered by the phone if you want to. And yeah, Secure Folder is also supported on DeX, with the choice to set it upwardly via the desktop environment if you haven't already gear up information technology up on the phone.

Conclusion

DeX is not a PC replacement, and you probably saw that conclusion coming from miles away. At its core, DeX is a dock that lets you hook upwardly a monitor, keyboard, and mouse (and other peripherals) to your phone. It's not unlike a standard USB hub that you lot tin can connect to a phone using a USB OTG cablevision, simply information technology has an HDMI port and lets you lot run Android in a desktop surround.

That desktop surroundings is certainly useful when yous need to work on your Galaxy S8 and have a monitor and other peripherals lying effectually. Near things run in mobile mode, but just the fact that you are seeing it on a big screen and tin accept a full-blown mouse and keyboard attached to the phone makes up for the annoyances. Annoyances are certainly a handful on DeX, specially for power users. For bones usage, even so, such equally browsing or editing documents, DeX works corking.

But the problem for well-nigh would be having an HDMI cable, a monitor, and input devices lying around for use with DeX, especially when they go out somewhere. Those who already have a desktop computer shouldn't detect it to exist an event, but for anybody else, investing in those items will be necessary if they intend to brand DeX a viable culling to a laptop or desktop figurer. At that place's also the fact that not a lot of apps accept official support for DeX, and there'southward no telling if more app developers will jump on board to support such a niche device.

DeX is certainly a not bad proof of concept that we can use our phones in a desktop-like environment when the need arises. Maybe one day everyone will just need to have an adequately powered smartphone and a monitor to go heavy work washed, simply right now, DeX leaves a lot to be desired. Whether it'south considering it but enlarges your Android interface to fit a monitor, or information technology's because yous need to brand certain you have all the necessary devices lying around to make DeX work, information technology's hard to say. Either way, it's non the PC replacement you accept been looking for, and it would be a better idea to invest in a Chromebook or an entry-level laptop if you need a traditional computer for advanced work that y'all can't go done on a smartphone.

Pros	Cons
Desktop-similar interface is handy	About apps run in mobile mode, some have scaling issues (especially on widescreen monitors)
Commendable functioning, multitasking	Android's keyboard and mouse annoyances get in the way
Numerous ports in a single device, including HDMI and Ethernet	Requires y'all to have monitor, mouse, and other devices
You can utilize your S8'south security methods on DeX	Can't use telephone at same time as DeX
Official support for useful apps similar Microsoft Office and Skype	No audio jack
	Needs Samsung's official charger

Abhijeet Mishra contributed to this review.

Source: https://www.sammobile.com/2017/06/14/samsung-dex-review-not-pc-replacement

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